


the green within us desert children

by water_poet



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Banter, Canon Dialogue, Children, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Falling In Love, Fix-It, Force Bond (Star Wars), Growing Old Together, Implied Poe Dameron/Finn, Marriage, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Saving the World, Soulmates, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:35:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22061926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/water_poet/pseuds/water_poet
Summary: In one world, Ben Solo dies with Kylo Ren. His spirit fades and the war is won. Rey celebrates without him.In another, perhaps they fail and the galaxy is plunged into a terrible reign of darkness until a child from some distant planet learns to fight back.But in this world, Ben does not die.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	the green within us desert children

**Author's Note:**

> Partly inspired by this fanart: https://leiaham.tumblr.com/post/143832815737/there-is-green-inside-you-desert-child-fanart
> 
> I truly cannot properly express my anger and downright disgust at this film and Abrams. This is just my small chip in the pile of healing fanfiction.

The ship lands on Endor amidst raucous cheering. Rey pauses for a long moment.  
  
"You ready?" she asks.  
  
Ben shrugs. "I hope so"  
  
The air is thick with the scent of third-summer flowers blooming amidst the creeping tendrils. The hot mist clings to Rey's skin like a cloak. Underfoot, the rich earth crackles with the weight of celebration.  
  
They step out together and silence falls over the the rebellion like a rippling wave, the shouts fading in the distance until the forest is silent save the scattered coos of the Mybryr bird.  
  
The emotions flood over Rey. Excitement. Relief. Fear. Confusion.  
  
Ben squeezes her hand.  
  
"We won" he says, calm and unwavering, strong. He sounds like the leader she knows him to be.  
  
Chewie roars triumphantly and Lando laughs and the flocks of bird scatter into the sky like fleeting smoke as cheers erupt across the company once again. Finn shoves his way through the crowd, Poe following after, fingers intertwined as they throw their arms around Rey.  
  
"I knew we would win" Finn says.  
  
Rey laughs. "How'd you know that?"  
  
He shrugs and his lips quirk into a smile. "Just a feeling"  
  
The world spins by in a whirlwind as the war ends. Chewie comes barging through the crowd and lifts Ben up into the air like a rag doll. Ben gasps and laughs and buries his face in the wookie's fur. Poe offers his hand and Ben takes it. Maz bows.  
  
A thousand gestures pass Rey by. Hands on her shoulder, her cheek, her hair, good-natured and warm and free. The rebels are rejoicing, clinging to each other.  
  
Ben doesn't let go of her hand.  
  


* * *

  
_"Stand together. Die together"_  
  
_It's not her words but the promise is made. It has all been for this, wars that shook the stars that raged in the hearts and minds of the galaxy aligning in this moment._  
  
_"Together" Rey says, and the air hums with power._  
  
_Ben grabs her hand. A thousand memories flood into her mind, and she knows now what her mission has always been._  
  
_Palpatine laughs, hoarse and cruel. He looks over them, the shadow of their past, craggy and dark and unnatural. The battle to be won is here._  
  
_Ben slips his hand through hers and the callouses on his palm rasp against her own hardened skin._  
  
_She feels his presence, around her, in her. He's a flash of lightning, searing and raw and powerful, streaking erratically across the night, slicing the starry sky in two. He's vivid and bright, and the heat rolling off of him is far wilder and sharper than the slow, lazy heat dancing over the sand. She know she should be afraid, but the taste of his presence is electric, searing through her veins and up her throat._  
  
_The spirits of the Sith roar and she is not afraid._  
  


* * *

  
"I guess the galaxy is full of dustbowls like this" Rey says, watching through the window as the Tatooine sands settles around the falcon.  
  
Ben laughs, soft and cautious, as if he's not quite used to it yet.  
  
The air is hot and the twin suns have just begun to sink below the horizon. Rey stares into the golden hollow that was once Luke's, years before, when wars were still childish things in history books. The sand holds firm beneath her feet as she kneels at the edge, commanding the sand to part.  
  
Ben sits beside her, folding Luke's saber into its leather pouch and tying the fiber cord around it. There is only silence now, as the sands shift and the lightsaber sinks into the pocket of earth at Rey's command.  
  
Ban stands and offers his hand to Rey. The sunset shows the hollows of his face in red and amber, like a painting.  
  
He pulls her to her feet and they hear a voice.  
  
"There's been no one for years. Who are you?"  
  
The woman is old and weathered, bronzed skin hanging in thick wrinkles off her thin face. Her back is hunched beneath thin purple robes, one gnarled hand curled around the reins of her steed. The creature snorts, as if to support its master's query.  
  
"Rey"  
  
"Rey who?" the woman snaps, and a thousand thoughts run through her mind. A scavenger with dust in her bones. A Jedi knight with the Force in her veins. The daughter of the Sith, a Palpatine, cruel and tireless as the desert winds.  
  
Ben grips her hand in his and she looks up at him for a moment. He smiles like he's loved her his whole life - maybe he has. The Force had always been strange - and she knows there has only ever been one answer.  
  
"Solo. Rey Solo" she says, and the gold band on her finger glints in the setting suns as the woman mumbles to herself about a bounty hunter who used to frequent the cantinas in Mos Eisley, a long, long time ago.  
  


* * *

  
Rey, I want you to know -   
  
_She cuts him off, eyes fierce._

Tell me after we win  
  
_Ben feels a surge of calm rush through him. She is green and cool, a misty forest waterfall tumbling gently in cataracts across smooth river stones and moss, scented with the breeze of wild flowers. She bubbles softly around him, distant but near. She's a breath of fresh air, clean and whole, a balm against the arid scars across his heart._  
  
_"Your power give me life anew!" Palpatine says, and he extends his hand towards them. His finger bend crooked and gnarled against the ever-shifting glow of the battle above._  
  
_It's not as painful as he would have thought. It's like the air is being slowly sucked from his lungs, and his whole body is being held in place by some great power._  
  
_Rey inhales sharply next to him and he wakes up. He feels her energy beside his, green and vibrant and fearless. He reaches out to protect it, to protect her, holding back the dark powers the surround them._  
  
Rey, I -   
  
I know  
  
_Palpatine's face contorts into rage as he leans into his attack, clawing at the barrier between the life giving energy and his cruel hands._  
  
_"How can this be?" the emperor snarls, and Ben almost laughs and the power is broken. They drop to the ground and Rey stumbles, clutching at his arm to steady herself._  
  
_The emperor sneers at them, craggy teeth glinting like monster's in the dimness of his lair. "Fine. The old-fashioned way, then" he declares._  
  
_Ben knows what's coming. He's already weak from fighting Palpatine's draining powers. His leg hurts from where he fell on it. He can taste iron._  
  
_Rey only glares, planting her feet. She is not afraid._  
  
_He is._  
  
_She tumbles to the ground and the lightning strikes him, tearing through his body like molten lead. He screams, because what else is there to do? The stone floor bites into his knees as he collapses. All he can hear is Palpatine's laughter and his own gasps of pain._  
  
_He remembers, years ago, when Snoke would do this after he failed his training. At first it was only in his dreams, and he'd wake up in a cold sweat with needles all over his skin as he bit his blanket to muffle his tears from Luke. Later it was in person. Snoke took no pleasure in the action. It was an instinct for him, and Ben had long since learned the best ways to avoid such a punishment._  
  
Ben!  
  
_He wonders if this is how he's going to die._  
  


* * *

  
The party hangs garlands of tiny lights and thin strips of colored paper from the branches of the trees. R2-D2 downloads several traditional ballads to play, and Rose volunteers her own lute skills. Maz presides.  
  
"Poe says he's sorry he couldn't make it" Janna says, coiling Rey's braid into an intricate bun. "He's still stuck in border negotiations with the Sovtyks"  
  
"I always forget wars don't end right away with battles" Rey says, rising. Her robes kick up dust on the dirt floor, and grime has already started to accumulate on the hem of her skirt.  
  
Janna doesn't bother to point it out.  
  
As a girl she'd always thought more about the dress and the flowers than the wedding. And yet now she wouldn't care if they were wedded alone on an ocean cliffside with only the wind and sea to witness.  
  
Chewbacca walks her down the aisle and R2 whistles out some gentle, romantic tune.  
  
Ben looks good in white, but she knows he's itching to change back to his black robes.  
  
"Dearly gathered in the Force: we have come here tonight to celebrate a truly unique union"  
  
_Did your parents ever get married?_  
  
Ben smiles, slightly turning his head to hide it.  
  
_They never told me. They always fought like it, though._  
  
Rey bites her lip to hold back her laughter, and Maz clears her throat.  
  
"Benjamin Solo, do you take Rey to be your wife?" Maz asks. Her eyes glint and they both know she knows.  
  
"I do" Ben says, and the honesty is still so sweet on his tongue.  
  
"Rey, do you take Ben as your husband?"  
  
"I do"  
  
He hears it in his mind first as she stares up at him for a long moment, warm and real and so much in love.  
  
"Then, in the name of the Force, I pronounce you husband and wife" Maz declares, and Rey tastes like a sunrise as the crowd roars.  
  


* * *

  
_In one world, Ben Solo dies with Kylo Ren. His spirit fades and the war is won. Rey celebrates without him._  
  
_In another, perhaps they fail and the galaxy is plunged into a terrible reign of darkness until a child from some distant planet learns to fight back._  
  
_But in this world, Ben does not die._  
  
Ben! Your lightsaber!  
  
_He understands her perfectly, a moment of clarity amidst his searing pain. He hold out his hand, muscles aching. For her. For all of them._  
  
_The cold metal hits his hand clumsily and the sharp twinge of pain and the wetness of blood remind him that he is still alive._  
  
_Ben clutches the saber and Palpatine laughs._  
  
_"Still trying to fight, young Skywalker? You're all the same, reckless and naïve"_  
  
_He doesn't hear Palpatine. He doesn't hear his breathing wheezing away. He only hears Rey._  
  
Now!  
  
_She catches the sabers and activates them both. Palpatine cries out one final time, his voice like rough sands whistling between rocks, and the chamber is silent._  
  
_Ben lies on the floor, gasping. Everything blurs into colored streaks around him, blue and red and green. Rey is glowing yellow and he reaches for her._  
  
_"You're going to be alright" she says, and even if she is wrong, he doesn't mind._  
  
_"Not bad for a murderous snake, eh, scavenger?" he asks, grinning crookedly._  
  
_She puts a hand to his face, and her pulse is gentle as it flutters against his jaw. "I've never seen you smile" she says, running her thumb along his cheekbone._  
  
_"Never wanted to" he says._  
  
_Above them, the Star Destroyers shake the sky as they begin to plummet to the ground. The planet groans with the force of the power. Rey reaches out with her mind and she can hear them; her friends cheer, cry, celebrate._  
  
_Ben is still smiling and she knows he senses it, too._  
  
_He lips are chapped and the cut on them bleeds into her mouth but he is the night sky as the wave of victory washes over the galaxy, bittersweet and true._  
  
_They stumble to their feet, dizzy and victorious and in love._  
  
_"Lets get you home, flyboy" Rey says._  
  
_Ben leans into her. He doesn't say anything this time. She already knows._  
  


* * *

  
The years pass. One kid, then two. An academy. A home.  
  
There is never really peace, but they have earned their share of it.  
  
She is not so young as she one was, freckles fading into her tanned skin and silver streaks glittering beside her ears. Once she would have been frightened. But fear seems foolish now.  
  
"Enjoying the rainstorm?" Ben asks, closing his book.  
  
Rey shrugs. "Just watching. It's always them same. I try to enjoy just being here. With you"  
  
He smiles, and the crow's feet around his eyes are still shallow.  
  
"I think I have always loved you, Rey" he says.  
  
The rainstorm rages on, the water rushing through the trees. Tomorrow when the sun rises, the forest will be littered with diamonds.  
  
Rey sighs.  
  
"I know"

**Author's Note:**

> Here's to another decade of stories worth telling.


End file.
